Monday, October 21, 2013

HWK for Tues. read Wife of Bath through page 280 (to "Words between the Summoner and the Friar")

And work on your short stories...due Wednesday.

Start thinking of a British Sonnet that you will memorize for next week.

Plus a few thoughts...

When Death is personified in the Pardoner's Tale, I thought of John Donne's sonnet "Death, Be Not Proud" about which, once upon a time, I had to write an essay... but that's another story. I also thought of Shakespeare's Sonnet 146... that I had once memorized because I liked the morbid yet liberating theme. Then today, I happened to check in on my old friend Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac - I have neglected him this year (I used to listen to him daily and often share with my classes at the start as students trickled in...but this year's been different, new preps and a new schedule with 40 minute classes have me crunched for time. But today, I want to share these. As a well as scene from Wit.

1. Post your film review
2. Comment on 2 or 3 of the reviews of your peers.
3. Post your Heaney poem (video, text, and link to text) - use HTML to embed the video
4. Your list of 10 if you haven't done so already!

The next episode...

For what it's worth, what do you think of a project my cousin did with two classmates for her Brit. Lit. class?

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Be ready to write your review - due Monday; however, please have a digital copy of your latest draft available.

Today in class, we broke from Beowulf to talk about big questions about education, the internet, and happiness. More on this later - in the meantime - check out my tweets @kob14 for what's been on my mind lately. One of the notions that has me thinking is how can we go beyond the generic five paragraph essay? What if we taught students to find their voice as writers? What if we turned students lose on the internet and embrace the information (including Sparknotes analysis) and move beyond plot summary? What if we stopped the charade that the internet didn't exist?

I want to learn with students and share my intellectual curiosity by modeling intellectual curiosity by confessing that I google everything. It's almost an affliction of sorts - I want to know the biography of the writer, hear his voice read his work, watch the documentary on her life, read that analysis of scholars as well as bloggers, and then arrive at my own conclusion - and appreciation of why study the writer. I find the study of literature fascinating because I find stories, history, writers, poets, critics, documentaries, films, life... all fascinating.

I want to sit at the Harkness table and feast on knowledge and insights like a pot-luck dinner where students bring their special dishes to the table. Some from grand mom, some from Harold Bloom, and yes even some from Schmoop. Let's get real. Let's stop playing games for little points. Let's be honest. Let's learn from one anther. And let's have fun doing it.

Forgive the Jerry Maguire mission statement-esque rant, but this has been percolating since I started teaching twelve years ago. At a new school, with many new observations, I want to grow as a teacher and inspire students and spark creativity and intellectual curiosity - not stress them and judge them. Let's continue this conversation.

So. Students, what do you think? I really want to know.

P.S. With gratitude, I want to thank all of you for your candid comments. I don't want this course to be a waste of your our time. I want you us to be happy and learn together. And yes, I want you to care about Beowulf and Jane Eyre, Virginia Woolf and South Park, or even South Park Grendel...

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Since the SAT is Saturday, and it's been a busy week...I will push the REVIEW'S DUE DATE to MONDAY for both sections. I will see you tomorrow - please read the following:

In an effort to give you more direction, and hopefully inspiration, I discovered some helpful links and wish to share my own thoughts on the writing process.

Ultimately, you're finding your voice as a writer. And that can take a lifetime.

A movie review allows you to share your insights as well as your personality. Consider the reviews that you have read and how the writers used diction, punctuation, and tone as well as humor to convey their opinions of the film.

A few words about my thinking behind today's quiz...

By dividing the reviews into three sections - in essence, the beginning, middle, and end - I wanted to see if you could identify the voice of each writer. It is interesting to note the allusions and diction for the respective audiences of the NY Times, USA Today, and Roger Ebert. In Part II, I wanted to see if you could begin the writing process for your review. I think it is valuable time to begin by writing in hand, so we are not able to delete and edit as quickly plus the physical writing of filling a page can be gratifying. I also wanted you to write to write freely without being critically assessed; instead, I gave you a time frame to stretch yourself to fill a page (or more) with words that may or may not end up in your final review. (Having reread the reviews closely and written about them to some extent, please be ready to discuss your insights tomorrow in class.)

For many writers (and students), beginning the writing process can be daunting and a blank computer screen can be intimidating to say the least. When I was in grad school, I had a tremendous break through in my writing when I read Anne Lamott's enlightening essay, "Shitty First Drafts" that offers priceless advice on the writing process based on her own experience:

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start
somewhere. Start by getting something -- anything -- down on paper. A friend of
mine says that the first draft is the down draft -- you just get it down. The second
draft is the up draft -- you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more
accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to
see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.

To be inside the mind of a writer like Anne Lamott, I no longer felt alone with my fears and anxiety around writing. In writing more in the early process - maybe twice as much more - the next draft that you will write and revise becomes... easier.

Again, the hardest part is starting the process and avoiding the procrastination pitfall. I hope these reviews and this quiz gives you some momentum with your review.

Why? Quite simply, the reader isn't reading your movie to learn what the movie is about; they are reading your movie review because they want to know whether that movie is worth watching or if it would be a waste of their time.But, if you shouldn't include summary, what, then, should you include in your movie review?

Things to Include in Your Successful Movie Review Acting or voice talentsThe directorProducers or producing companiesSequels and prequelsMemorable quotesRelease dateRatingA short (extremely short) amount of synopsis that does not reveal plot twists or the endingAnd most importantly, you need to include:

Your opinion

Continued......Outline of a Movie Review The following outline will show you the sort of bare-bones skeleton of a successful movie review that was mentioned previously.

TITLE (Includes the movie title.)

SUBTITLE (Optional, but this is a good place for that catchy, clever title you were thinking of using.)

OPENING HOOK (Here you can tease the reader with a quote, a question, a bit of tantalizing summary, etc., without actually mentioning the movie. You just need to get the attention of the reader.)

BODY-Synopsis-Facts-Opinion (Work in the facts as you give your opinion on the movie. This is also the place to weave in a little bit of summary, but keep it short and broken up. Remember, the reader wants your opinion.)

CONCLUSION (You can recommend it - or not - to anyone, everyone, only so-and-so, etc.)

Develop Your Voice

Understand the difference between voice and tone and how it translates to the page.

Steve Erickson: Do you think cinephilia is more stigmatized for women than other kinds of ‘geeky’ pursuits, like following science fiction or particular TV shows? Looking at online film discussion groups, this often seems to be the case.

Manohla Dargis: I find the gender divide puzzling, and exasperating. I wish there were more women – as well as more black, Asian and other non-white male critics writing about film in this country – not because of some “politically correct” imperative but because it makes the discussion more interesting. It’s unbelievably tedious how similar in voice and thought many American film writers are, no matter what clique, school of thought or dead film critic to which they adhere.

Frankly, I am pretty bored with most of the film criticism I read, to the point that I am beginning to think we need to start re-examining what it is and what it’s good for, if anything. Of course, most of what’s out there isn’t really criticism but a degraded form of reviewing – just thumbs up, thumbs down, with a heavy dose of plot synopsis. Even reviewers who are somewhat more ambitious than the average hack tend to write about movies as if they’re reviewing books. They pay very little if any attention to the specifics of the medium, to how a film makes meaning with images – with framing, editing, mise en scène, with the way an actor moves his body in front of the camera. To read most film critics in the United States you wouldn’t know that film is a visual medium.

There is smart writing on movies out there – Film Comment and Sight and Sound are two oases – but there is a wearying homogeneity nonetheless. I’m not really sure where it comes from or why it exists. All I know is that there are received ideas about how to look and write about movies, and that not many critics deviate from those received ideas. (And frankly, it can be hard to do so when you’re on deadline and when you’re writing a lot. I’m still figuring out how to get out of the box.) At least some of it, I think, is due to the phenomenon of critics who absorb the ideas and voice of other critics. Although I’m sure it would horrify Hoberman to hear this, there are writers who now slavishly write in imitation of Jim’s style, much as an older generation imitates the late Pauline Kael in voice and prejudice. The thing is that although Jim’s imitators can, to a modest degree, approximate his style they’re simply nowhere as smart. They also don’t get that he has a definite worldview and that his style dovetails with that worldview.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Looking ahead...
Finish watching the film in classReading Quiz on Wednesday on the Reviews - followed by discussion.
Discussion on Thursday - plus time to write (bring your computer if you wish).3-4 page Review Due Friday"Do these reviews need to be creative?"

Anytime you write, whether it be creative or analytical, you are persuading your reader to buy your story or believe your argument.

Anytime you put words to paper your creative, so yes, this creative.

In incorporating the other reviews, your creating your own opinion by differentiating your insights from theirs.

So be creative in your take on the film and take inspiration from the reviews.

With that in mind, use the three views I posted - NY Times's Manohla Dargis, Roger Ebert, and USA Today's Claudia Puig - consider each writer's distinct voice. Note the difference in tone, attitude, subtle humor, and aesthetic sensibility.

Read more reviews if you wish for your review, but for the sake of your quiz WEDNESDAY be able to identify the three authors of the reviews in the selected quotes that I will give you; then, agree or disagree with the points made in the quotes.

Yes, this quiz holds you accountable for the reading, but also prepares you for your essay as you dig into the reviews in writing.

And it is by such means that Yeats's work does what the necessary poetry always does, which is to touch the base of our sympathetic nature while taking in at the same time the unsympathetic nature of the world to which that nature is constantly exposed. The form of the poem, in other words, is crucial to poetry's power to do the thing which always is and always will be to poetry's credit: the power to persuade that vulnerable part of our consciousness of its rightness in spite of the evidence of wrongness all around it, the power to remind us that we are hunters and gatherers of values, that our very solitudes and distresses are creditable, in so far as they, too, are an earnest of our veritable human being.

Homework:

HWK:Friday - Read to page 62.For Monday - Finish the book - page 72.Review Heart of Darkness on Monday.In-Class Write on Tuesday - I will have a couple passages with questions.Wednesday - ARS POETICA - a long poem about poetry.This month/this year/ this life, what have you learned about poetry?Does poetry matter? Thursday/Friday Exam Review